


El Dorado

by killmeksoo



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Horror, Alternate Universe - Scientists, Emotional Manipulation, Exploitation, M/M, Mild Gore, but will slowly become moreso, it doesn't start off scary, it gets kind of dark, just a warning, tao is an evil demonic bastard, this is a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 16:03:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15975710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killmeksoo/pseuds/killmeksoo
Summary: 11 colleagues head out on an expedition to retrieve priceless artifacts for an anonymous donor- when they get lost, something else gets foundSomething that was better off staying lost.





	El Dorado

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know any science.   
> Once again, this is not beta'd so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors that I didn't catch or if the flow is off. I've taken several breaks while writing this fic.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

This was the absolute worst place on the face of the planet- Sehun was sure. The damp heat was stifling; the raucous noise nearly unbearable. The forest was alive and it felt like he was traveling through a wind tunnel of sound, and moving sentient heat. It made him physically ill. The feeling you get right before you pass out, like everything is so loud that it’s actually muffled. The temperature was oppressive, but it was the moisture in the air that was downright hateful towards the youngest and least experienced member of their ragtag troupe. With every struggling breath he took, it felt as if he’d gulped down water along with it. It wasn’t raining just yet, but a fine mist permeated through the air- as if the rain had fizzled out along the tree canopy and was nothing more than a mere annoyance as it reached the forest floor. He felt as if his senses were overloaded- with noise, and too bright colours and above all, exhaustion.

Sehun watched in silence as Junmyeon paused mid stride to examine the map rolled up in his pack. Sweat had covered much of his shirt, and dripped from his furrowed brows as he stared at the crinkled drawings in concentration.   
Collectively, their group seemed to sigh in relief at the brief pause in their expedition.   
Baekhyun, the photographer that had been hired on to document their findings, leaned against a tree not far from their path- seemed to think better of it, and leaned heavily against an annoyed looking Kris instead.  
Baekhyun shrugged at him with a small, charming smile. “Spiders.” He supplied.

“Don’t tell me,” Chanyeol started, his breath coming in pants. “We're lost?”

“Not lost.” muttered Junmyeon, eyes never leaving the map. He was in charge of scouting the safest path on their excursion. “But I think it's important that we find somewhere safe to camp out before we lose all day light.”

“It’s hotter than balls out here.” Luhan grumbled, voice surprisingly strong despite the fact that they'd been trekking through unmarked jungle for hours. He was….well, Sehun didn't know what he did. He was just very famous for something. “And my balls are steaming right now, so that should tell you something.”

Minseok choked on the water he was chugging, holding the bottle away from his face to grimace at Luhan.

“A master of descriptive imagery, as always” Junmyeon said, a smile hinted at the corner of his lips. “Thanks for that mental image and remind me to pick up some bleach when we get back to civilization.”

Kris snorted.

The group resettled into silence once they started moving again. The effort it took to stumble through the wild, unbeaten paths was too much to carry on conversation. They'd been hiking through the forest since just before dawn, and the sun now shone high in the center of the sky. Junmyeon was right, it would get dark soon and Sehun didn't want to be caught in the middle of a dangerous rainforest without cover when it did.  
The problem was finding an area that wasn't covered in vegetation to set up camp.

“Watch your step,” Jongin warned.  
Sehun glanced down to see the carcass of a dead monkey, trapped beneath the vines and shrubs on the ground.

With a small shudder, Sehun avoided stepping on the corpse, continuing forward. He really wasn’t an outdoorsy person.  
It was extremely rare that the Museum sent him out to help curate artifacts, and he'd have liked if they kept it that way. Junmyeon, Chanyeol, Luhan, Kris and Kyungsoo were the adventurous types. Completely at home in the new and strange environment. They were also legends in their respective fields- all had built names for themselves with recent discoveries or findings, and theses. Everyone included had a high paying job with years of study and commendations behind them. Sehun was just an intern and TA for Junmyeon at the college where he taught. He wasn’t at all prepared for field work. Especially the kind that came at the bequest of some wealthy, anonymous donor to the Museum where all of these bright and shining hopefuls dedicated their time.  
Sehun envied their resilience and also hated them a little for dragging him out here. The mysterious donor had given the museum a tip that they could find artifacts that would date back to the Muisca legend of El Dorado deep within the forest. The donor had spent literally millions of dollars to gather this specific team, with all of the newest and best equipment possible in order to see it through.  
The Museum did not say how long they had to wander around the forest until it would be acceptable to come back empty handed, but Sehun was assuming that this was one of those situations where they wouldn’t be allowed to come back empty handed.

“I think...we may have to cut through to make...camp” Yixing panted, his hair clumping against his face.

“We could tie some tarps together and make hammocks in the trees.” Chanyeol suggested.

“The rain, stupid. You want to drown in your tree hammock too?” Kris asked. “Besides, we’re not supposed to disturb anything with our presence. So no cutting down anything.”  
Kris was the survivalist. He took his job very seriously, whatever exactly it was.   
Sehun didn’t know if he should point out that they all had done a pretty good job of surviving up until this point, without such a title.

“I don't want to sleep on the ground though. Aren’t there snakes and boars and tigers in here?” Baekhyun said.

“Did anyone even bother to check the supplies the Museum sent us?” Jongin said with quite a bit of exasperation. “I highly doubt they'd just drop us off in the middle of the forest with little more than tarps and machetes.”

Luhan laughed heartily. “If you saw what they were paying all of us, you'd believe it. This expedition was budgeted to be around 50 mil. After everyone gets their cut, what's left over?”

“Enough money for tarps and energy bars.” Minseok replied, a smirk on his face.

“Bingo!”

Jongin rolled his eyes, angrily reaching into his bag to yank out his water bottle.

“If you all did more walking and less talking we would already be in the perfect spot to lay down tonight.” Junmyeon said, glaring at everyone.  
One by one, they all continued to trudge through the muddy forest. Sehun had spent most of the time counting frogs, or the beads of sweat falling from Jongin’s scalp to his neck before disappearing under his shirt to pool with the rest of them between his shoulders. So far, thirteen different kinds of frogs and about 300 drops of sweat give or take a few.   
Needless to say, Sehun was not paying all that much attention to his surroundings. He hadn’t realized how thick the brush was growing until it was nearly up to his knees and difficult to disentangle from.  
“It’s only going to get worse from here guys.” Junmyeon sighed as he kicked himself free of another twining vine. “I think our best bet is to head closer towards the river. The foliage will most likely clear up the closer to the water we are.”  
“Oh yeah, that sounds like a marvelous idea.” Kris replied with heavy sarcasm. “Let’s all camp out right next to the watering hole where all the local predators go to find a snack. Caiman, Jaguars, Anacondas- but hey! No foliage.”  
Chanyeol cleared his throat casting Kris a disapproving glance.  
“While i’m not a fan of his attitude, he’s not wrong about the saturation of wildlife closer to the water- uh- not to mention that it will actually grow thicker the closer to the river that we are. Most predators use the foliage by the river to hide and ambush. So, uhm- yeah. I do admire Black Caiman but I don’t want to admire them from all that close a distance.”  
Junmyeon regarded Kris with a dark look before asking him for suggestions ‘since he was being so helpful’  
“If we head east, we’ll have less of this growth and more moss. There should even be small streams heading into the river where we could get our water from without fear of attracting attention from other animals.”  
Junmyeon shrugged and immediately turned toward what Sehun could only guess to be an easterly direction and set off.  
Chanyeol was their team’s zoologist. He was a nerdy looking fellow, with long limbs and overgrown hair and glasses so thick his eyes looked huge through the lens- but he was extremely smart and rather charming. He had seen to it to point out every small creature they came across on their journey to Sehun or Jongdae or both if they were close enough to hear.  
“Oh Sehun, look.” He’d say, and then go on naming whatever animal it was with its scientific name before describing it’s characteristics and eating habits and mating habits until Sehun had more information about the creature than most encyclopedias.  
“From now on when people say the phrase ‘burn in hell’, I’m going to have ptsd flashbacks of this place.” Jongdae moaned. He swatted at a mosquito that landed on his arm and started lamenting about west nile virus before being reminded by Minseok that they had all been vaccinated for that along with countless other viruses before leaving the States.  
“When I die,” Jongdae replied with squinted eyes. “Then you will realize.”  
With a noise somewhere between a scoff and a laugh, Minseok heaved his sack of supplies further up on his shoulders and expertly weaved his way around the brush on the jungle floor, keeping an easy pace with Luhan.  
“I’m not cut out for this Jongdae,” Sehun said miserably “I think I’m going to die out here.”  
Jongdae nodded at Sehun solemnly. “If you don’t I will be very surprised.”  
He cracked a smile and Sehun felt infinitesimally better, able to return it with a small laugh. Eventually they managed to find a decently clear plot of land that they could put tents up on. Minseok set to getting a fire started almost immediately.  
With a relieved sigh, Sehun dropped his heavy sack onto the forest floor and quickly crumpled on top of it. He really wasn’t cut out for this. He was better suited to watching these kinds of things at home. Already, his clothes were becoming damp from the contact with the wet forest floor. This place was the worst!   
He watched as Kyungsoo and Chanyeol began setting up the tents, and Kris and Luhan began working up a small perimeter around their camp to keep away snakes and other predatory animals. He would have liked to help them, but his bones felt like mush after all the hiking. Soon, Jongin came and took a seat beside him, gulping from his water jug before saying much.  
“You’re rooming with me, right?” Jongin said after a moment.  
Sehun nodded, crawling over his sack and onto Jongin’s legs. Out of everyone here, Jongin was the most like him. He was an assistant to Chanyeol and rarely went out into the field. However, he seemed to be coping better.  
“This place is hell” Sehun groaned. “I’m so hungry and tired, and I just don’t want to be wet anymore!”  
Jongin laughed. “It’s not all bad. It’s really beautiful.”  
“Scenery is for pictures.” Sehun mumbled, making Jongin laugh again.  
“I am curious why you’re here. You don't have much interest in Geography or any of the skills related to this.” Jongin said, honestly.  
Sehun glowered. “No, I just can tell really old expensive things from things that...aren’t, I guess. But it’s not like there aren’t millions of better qualified appraisers out there; so I’m just as confused as you are.”  
“It’ll be fine, we can just find something tomorrow and head home. Easy-peasy.” Jongdae said lightly, taking a seat across from Sehun and Jongin.  
Jongin frowned at him. “I was thinking about that, and I really don’t think so.”  
Jongdae tilted his head, blinking his eyes curiously. It was a cute expression for someone with such a distinguished history.  
“I mean, with the amount of money this donor is investing, and the fact that they already knew exactly where the artifacts are...why not just send a team out to collect them? What is the purpose of teaming up with the museum? I think that this isn’t the first time someone was sent out here to locate these items. But maybe they failed for some reason, or maybe they tried to run off with whatever it is and keep it for themselves. I mean, we all work for the museum so we are required to relinquish our finds. Maybe the donor was worried someone might run off with it.”  
Baekhyun had stopped nagging at Luhan to stare at Jongin with a contemplative look.  
“To be honest, I had a similar thought,” Baekhyun said. “But it could also be that no one was able to return.”  
That sent a small shiver down Sehun’s spine as he thought about being stuck in this hellscape forever.  
“What do you mean?” Chanyeol asked, pushing his glasses up onto his face; they had a tendency to slide down his nose as he read.  
“Well...I don’t know.” Baekhyun shrugged. “It could be nothing. I just...have a bad feeling is all.”  
“You should always trust your instincts. They’ll keep you alive.” Kris mumbled.  
“Joy.There’s nothing like the promise of imminent death to really motivate you to go out and find some unknown artifacts, am I right?” Luhan said with heavy sarcasm.  
“It’s going to rain soon everyone. I recommend we just eat some protein bars for dinner tonight and then head into our tents. We can hunt for food tomorrow.” Kyungsoo said softly before turning for the tent he was sharing with Jongdae and Junymeon.

Sehun’s stomach lurched at the thought of having to eat a lizard or some other wild creature for dinner tomorrow. Why had no one invented a portable microwave yet?  
With Jongin’s help, he made his way into their shared tent and changed into some more comfortable, slightly less damp clothes for sleeping. It wouldn’t have mattered much, even at night, the forest was alive and Sehun couldn’t sleep through the noise. He was pretty sure monkeys were in a fight to the death a few hundred feet away. He shivered and tossed and turned, and looked over at Jongin to see him sleeping soundly. With an irritated sigh, Sehun peeked out of his tent to check on the fire. It had stopped raining a few hours ago, and he had heard Kris and Minseok outside, speaking softly, as they tended to a new one. Now, the camp was empty, but the fire was still burning. Barely.

Sehun padded out of his tent softly and retrieved some of the dry twigs and branches they had brought with them, to add to the fire. When he was satisfied that the flames would last until everyone woke up a few hours from now he began to head back into his tent. He was zipping up the door when he heard the sound of brush rustling nearby. Sehun paused and looked out across the camp for the source of the noise. He didn’t see anything immediately. But then, at about the same height as Kris- glowing, golden eyes appeared. No one traveling with them had golden eyes, but still..  
“Kris? Is that you?” Sehun said.  
No answer.  
The golden eyes continued to stare at Sehun, unblinking.   
Fear caused Sehun into action and he hurriedly zipped up the tent door- for all the good a nylon fabric would do against a man-sized beast- and cuddled up against Jongin’s side. Eyes shut tight.   
This was the worst place on earth.


End file.
